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Thagra
Created by /u/Cereborn GEOGRAPHY Thagra is made of three islands. The first island is mostly jungle, with grassy hills, and mountains to the north. The other two islands are quite rocky and mountainous with pockets of jungle, grassland, and beach secluded from the rest of the island by mountain ridges. The climate is tropical and gets a very stormy wet season in the summer. BIOLOGY Orcs The Orcs are humanoid in shape, ranging typically from 1.8m to 2.5m in height. They are recognizable by their green skin, which ranges from an emerald green to a dark pine green. Their hair grows in some combination of red and black, and they have orange eyes. They are predisposed to being muscular, male and female, and even a weaker Orc can physically overpower most humans. They have four genders. That is, male and female sex are both subdivided into two genders (more on this later). Special trait:Orcs are very resistant to cold. So resistant that one can be left outside in the winter to freeze, then later be thawed out with no lasting effects. The record for being frozen is 14 years. Nassela Nassela are amphibious humanoids. They are exclusively female (male Nassela exist, but that's a story for another time). A Nassela has no hair, but on the top of her head is a wide row of about 100 small spines, and six tentacles grow from the back of her head. She has fins on the backs of her calves and forearms to aid in swimming. Her skin is silvery white, with various swirls of blue. She can survive both underwater and on land for an extended period. The only drawback is that her eyes are attuned for perfect vision underwater, so above water Nassela all wear eyeglasses. Special Trait: Thanks to her keen senses and attention to detail, a Nassela is astonishingly good at detecting when someone is lying. Never try to con a Nassela. Humans The Islanders are normal humans with dark hair and copper-coloured skin. HISTORY Long ago, the Orcs were known as bloodthirsty savages, who conquered whole peoples and sacrificed hundreds to their dark lord Serrael. But over time they changed. They abandoned their weapons in favour of books and science. They abandoned their shamans and warlocks in favour of rational pursuits. In time, the memory of Orcs as barbarians as all but forgotten, and they were celebrated as intellectuals: physicians, scientists, mathematicians, astronomers, philosophers. They travelled far and wide sharing knowledge, and their great city of Iskwa was a haven for thinkers. But they were targeted by a powerful empire which was jealous of their knowledge. The Orcs were no longer warriors enough to defend themselves, so they were massacred. Those who survived fled toward the ocean, where they received help from an unlikely source. The Coven of Serrael had stayed true to the old ways, the dark ways. They emerged from the shadows to aid their distant kin, spiriting them across the ocean. To Thagra. Thagra was inhabited by a primitive group of humans who worshipped some sort of sea goddess named Nassela. In time, they discovered Nassela was not a sea goddess, but a race of amphibious women who lived in the surrounding sea and at times walked the land. The Nassela also had keen minds, and the Orcs managed to forge an alliance with them. Using the beliefs of the islanders to their advantage, they raised a workforce to begin constructing a new society. As they did so, the Orcs fractured into three groups. The scholars went about building a library, to be a new centre of knowledge in the world. Others looked at the island's natural resources and saw the opportunity to make money, using this money to fund an army that would one day strike back at their enemies. Others gave up on society and became pirates, seeking to take whatever they could from the cruel world, by matching its cruelty with their own. And behind all three of these fractured groups lurks the Coven of Serrael, still waiting to hatch its devious plot to conquer the world. SOCIETY Socially, Thagra is divided broadly into three parts. The major port cities on the west island are held by the wealthy elite: an oligarchy of Orcs with some Nassela co-conspirators. Indentured Islanders make up the majority of the work force there, while Orcs make up most of the middle class. On the central island, that is where the scholars reign supreme. That is where you can find the great Library of Myska, which archives copies of every book in the known world. The scholars remain mostly self-sufficient on their island and don't interact much with the west. To the east is the lawless island of the pirates. If there is any order there at all, it is kept by a cabal of pirate captains who want to make sure they remain comfortable in their positions. CULTURAL ATTRIBUTES Even among those who don't study in the Library, intellect is valued among Orcs. Literacy is aggressively pursued among the middle class, and the wealthy merchants like to surround themselves with as many learned advisers as they can. Even the pirates are much better read than you might expect. Additionally, Orcs practice tattooing in almost all areas of society. There are thousands of tattoos that come with their own signifiers of someone's status and position in society. They can, in some cases, be purely decorative too. Religion is a touchy subject. Many Orcs have thoroughly abandoned religion in favour of science, while the Coven of Serrael still holds to the dark and ancient practices of their old religion. For that reason, even the name Serrael is almost always associated with black magic, despite being the primary deity in their religion. As a result, a hybrid religion has formed between the Orcs and the Nassela, merging the dark lord Serrael with the Nassela deity, the deep queen Annasha. At times they still offer animal sacrifices and offer prayers to the sea. MAGIC In the more civilized parts of Thagra, magic is illegal in public. Anyone known to be a magic user is distrusted by the mainstream society. But those people do not stay in town for long. All magic users are sought out by the Coven and recruited, willingly or no. Their organization includes Orcs, humans, and Nassela alike. The specifics of their magic are not widely known, but it is heavily based around spells and rituals. Some of these rituals carry very high prices indeed. Also, it is said that powerful witches will travel with animal companions that are actually dark spirits in disguise. IMPORTS/EXPORTS Major imports Iron, coal, grains, industrial tech. Major Exports Sugar, rum, fruit, whale products, seaweed, pearls, coral; optical glass (eyeglasses, microscopes, telescopes, etc.), medical technology, chemistry. POSTS Thagra Some Quick Facts About Thagran Peoples WSW New Weights and Measures Black Magic part 1 MM: The Library of Myska Stowaway on the Grey Lady Mutiny on the Grey Lady An Overview of the Coven of Serrael Madness of Madame Maeve The Pirate, The Witch, and The Skull Bestselling Author New Edits Voyages on the Grey Lady Kami the Grown Up Witch MM: The Pirate Bay The Pirate, the Witch, and the Skull part 2 A Night in Port Starling The Pirate, The Witch, and The Golden Skull part 3 The Pirate, The Witch, and The Golden Skull part 4 The Plot Thickens The Pirate Witch, Or Something Like it Writer’s Block WSW: The Advent of Light Sketching Witchever Way the Wind Blows Witchever Way the Wind Blows part 2 Witchever Way the Wind Blows part 3 Witchever Way the Wind Blows part 4 MM: Welcome to Kellemar Red Dead Revolver Every Witch Way But Loose The Magnum Opus (MM) The Witches Carnival Retirement Eh 7x Stop Telephonin’ Me!